You're a merciless secret agent, cleared to murder at your discretion, but you're not going to sit by and allow a child to come to harm.
Racing up the handrail, you grow to five inches for greater speed. At the terminus, you can jump down without harm, and look along the landing for the door of a girl's bedroom.
It's closed, the handle too far up for you to reach and manipulate. So you shrink yourself to the other extreme, passing underneath the barrier easily, and beholding the expanse of the inner sanctum.
It's a habitation scaled for a god, the resident standing tall in the middle, beside her bed. Her trembling vibrates through her bare feet into the floor, all the way to your position. Mercifully, she has dressed, and while she hasn't put on socks or slippers yet, leggings and a hoodie cover the rest of her.
Colleen calls out nervously, clearly worried by the gunshots. "Claude..?" Must be the bodyguard's name. But you know he isn't coming to save her, and if she gives her position away, she'll be next. Back to five inches, and you brace yourself for her reaction: if it's bad, you'll be in danger yourself.
The girl just gapes at you, which is far from the worst respose. Waving your arms, you shout up at her. "Claude's dead. You need to hide, now!"
Tears form at her eyes, but looking down at a miniature man must have shocked her enough to react. She lies down and rolls herself underneath the bed, where you join her, finally face-to-face. She's flushed, snot and tears mingling as they run down her skin, her every breath gasped. You're not sure what you can say to calm her, having never been around kids much. Maybe being so blunt about Claude's fate wasn't a good idea?
In the end, you settle for patting at her great cheek with a hand, uttering a calming hush like she's a horse. "It's going to be all right, don't worry."
She replies with a disgusting, thunderous sniff, and then the door is thrown open. A single pair of boots stand there for a moment before the assassin paces in. It's no good, he's going to find her, and there's nothing you can do to stop him. Hensley said that your gun lacked the stopping power to put a man down.
Wait! That's it! You still have Hensley's own gun! You pull it from your jacket and place it on the carpet before Colleen. The girl blinks down at the toy-like instrument, distracted for a moment from her approaching executioner.
Come on, come on, this has to work! Colleen switches her huge eyes to you, eyebrows raised as if to say 'and?'. The man walks to the very edge of the bed, stopping in preparation for looking under it.
Then! The gun springs back to its original size. Colleen gasps, and the man ducks to look at her, a smile crossing his ugly face. The smile shatters as the girl puts a bullet through it, grasping and firing the pistol on instinct. Its blast is almost deafening, leaving you unable to hear Colleen's sobbing, but her regret and terror at having killed a man is writ large over her larger face.
Ears ringing, you scramble out into the open, to confirm that the man's threat is over. At this range, there's not a lot to keep him going as his blood pools out. You need to keep Colleen from seeing the mess she caused.
Fingers wrap around you as the girl grabs and picks you up. Colleen's hands are smaller than Miss Hensely's and she's not holding you tight, but as she lifts you you realise that she holds just as much power over you. Her breathing is still coming in gasps, but there's determination in her eyes now.
"What are you doing? Put me down!"
"We have to find my mother."
"Is she in the house?"
"No. You'll help me find her."
This is a level of involvement you weren't prepared for. You've saved her life, so you have no further obligation. You could shrink out of her grip and ransack this place for the secrets you came for, no problem.
Or does some conscience demand you help her? You've already taught her to fire a gun, so what harm in also having her drive a car with your tutelage? If that's going too far, perhaps she has a bicycle that she could ride.
That's leaving aside the most obvious solution. Colleen could always call her mother, but whoever sent this assassin could be monitoring communications, and be alerted by the attempt.
Who's to say this is the only gunman on the premises? You could ask Colleen to set you down to search him, see if there are any clues as to who the enemy is, although that will eat up valuable time.
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